Clocks showing the correct time is something we take for granted. When the Windows time is wrong, it can interrupt scheduled tasks or lead to weird errors. Moreover, a time that’s off by minutes or even hours can make you run late or miss appointments.

Yes, you can sync your Windows time with a remote server to keep the exact time. But note that a Windows clock that keeps losing its time could hint towards a more serious issue. Let us show you what the underlying causes may be and how you can fix them.

1. CMOS Battery

This is the most likely culprit, especially if your computer is a little older.

The CMOS battery sits on your computer’s motherboard and provides power to the Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) chip. This chip stores information about the system configuration, including the date and time. The CMOS battery makes sure the chip can store this data even while the computer is turned off and not hooked up to power.

If the battery goes bad, the chip starts losing information and one of the symptoms is that your Windows computer no longer maintains its time and date.

Replacing the CMOS battery is pretty easy. You just have to turn off your computer, ground yourself, open the case, find out which type of battery (step 3 in the linked guide) sits on your motherboard, go buy it, start over, and exchange the battery. Follow the links to the keywords for articles on the respective steps.

2. Time Zone

This is an easily fixed cause for when your computer clock is off by one or more hours.

Windows may simply be set to the wrong time zone and every time you fix the time, it resets itself to that time zone when you reboot. If the minutes are correct and only the hour is bad, that’s probably the issue you’re dealing with.

To fix your time zone in Windows 10, right-click the system clock in your Taskbar and select Adjust date/time. Under the Time Zone header, check whether the information is correct. If not, select the correct time zone from the drop-down menu.

If you want to go further and change the time server, scroll further down in the above window and click Additional date, time, & region settings. At present, this will take you to the old Control Panel.

Under Date and Time, click Set the time and date, which opens another window. Switch to the Internet Time tab, click Change Settings, and now you can add an Internet time server of your choice, which your system will use to synchronize the time.

3. Windows Time

If your CMOS battery is still good and your computer is only using seconds or minutes over long periods of time, then you could be dealing with poor synchronization settings.

To make sure Windows is synchronizing its time, press Windows key + R, enter services.msc into the Run menu, and hit Enter. In the Services window, find Windows Time in the Name column, right-click it, and select Properties.

In the Windows Time Properties window, set Start type to Automatic. Then click Start to make sure the service is running and click OK to save your changes.

Bonus: It Could Be Malware

This is the least pleasant scenario because malware is notoriously difficult to remove.

Once you have all these tools downloaded, updated, and installed, boot in Safe ModeHow to Boot Into Windows 10 Safe ModeHow to Boot Into Windows 10 Safe ModeSafe Mode is an inbuilt troubleshooting feature that allows you to fix issues at the root, without non-essential applications interfering. You can access Safe Mode in various ways, even if Windows 10 no longer boots.Read More and run them. It’s important to start in Safe Mode because the malware won’t launch and be active when you choose this boot mode. This means that it is less likely to escape detection and removal.

Back on Time

From now on you’ll know to pay attention even to the smallest details. Simple oddities can be a sign of serious trouble ahead. For example, if your CMOS battery dies, your computer will act like it has Alzheimer’s and you have to introduce it to its hardware components (via the BIOS) every time it boots. That’s just as annoying as a virus that’s playing tricks on you or a bad time zone setting that messes up everything, from the clock to your email client’s timestamps. So be wise and act immediately.

Hello,
I got my laptop about 5 months ago and not only is it not keeping track of time passed, It also forgot the PIN number i use to log in, so I had to use my Microsoft account login. After looking at this article, I thought It was the CMOS battery, but my laptop has't said anything like "CMOS check sum error". So does that mean the CMOS battery is dying or is it something else?

It's unlikely that the CMOS battery for a 5 months old laptop is already dying. Is this a new or used laptop? It could be another issue with the UEFI / BIOS or motherboard or maybe the CMOS battery is really already dying.

Hello Tina,
I read and checked everything suggested everywhere I could find and nothing helped, however there were other minor annoyances going on at the same time for me. It wouldn't always restart properly from the windows sleep, restart, shutdown options but always would during a windows update, although the wait could be interminable. And my folding@home performance had also slowed considerably. I imagined faults in the motherboard where the front panel connections are made, or the cpu. Interestingly, if I just waited 5 minutes before pressing the start button (I guess while things cooled and connections formed again) it started right up with no problem except having to reset the clock!

The solution for me took a long time to find but in the end was a cheap fix. One of my memory modules was not seated properly. From now on I'll put that at the top of my list!

Hey Tina,
I turn on my laptop, and then it prompts to dos with a loud beep sound and a note on top ..date time is off. I have to shout it down and when i turn the laptop on again, it prompts to win. 7 screen , but shows 2009 date. I correct it on the Control Panel (Date and Time tab). However, when i turn on the laptop again, i get the same issue. Is the issue the CMOS Battery that you are referring too? If so, is there one for my Dell laptop as well?

I bought my PC in 2011. 2 months ago, the date on my pc starts to show inaccurate time and the CMOS battery was replaced. My problem starts after replacing the CMOS battery. During use (sometimes after 1 hour usage and sometimes 20 minutes usage), the monitor will suddenly black out but the CPU continues running. This happens many times. I have taken the monitor and CPU to the shop for checking a few times. The shop said everything is fine with the monitor and CPU. I am at my wits end. Please help

Would it be helpful if i only updated the BIOS of my laptop without changing the CMOS battery? i had already updated once the BIOS 1 year ago. My laptop does not show any problem like beep sound, CMOS checksom error except clock stopping problem.

I got same problem here on my dell inspiron n5110. Every time i boot up the time starts from where i shut it down last time. But my laptop doesn't show any problem except clock time problem. I mean no beep sound, no CMOS checksum error and like that kind of error.

My problem is slightly different when my pc is on automatic it sets to about 30 mins behind the current time at first i solved this by turning the "set time automatically" off. However recently it has been losing time again. I removed a trojan yesterday but the problem still hasn't been resolved.I had my bios battery checked about 2 months ago and it was in perfect working order.

i am using window 7 ultimate 32 bit and i am still facing this problem.. when i click at timezone button i am not able to see option automatically adjust clock for day light saving. so that time of the window will changed again and again.. kindly help me

Dual Problem for me: I shut down, then hours later computer has rebooted itself to system window and tells me to "F1", where it enters the bios with wrong time. I have tried resetting to "windows-time" as well as other time servers sychronized thru internet, I have tried manually resetting; Nothing works. Bad CMOS? Took it to store within year of purchase, they said nothing wrong. Should I disable APM (Advanced Power Management)? Is it a monitor power saving option that is interfering? I have run Malware detection, virus detection, all clean.....Very frustrating. Thanks.

I have some strange problem with time sync on Windows 7. Almost every time when some of my colleagues starts to move/save some data to HDD (not system drive) from one of our servers, system starts to lose time sync (up to 45 seconds forward at that moment when they press on save confirmation button). Problem remains even after fresh system install.

What do you think, can a damaged HDD cause losing time sync?

System drive is 500GB WD and data drive/partition is 2x 1TBWD in RAID.

my computer sometimes shows date 2815 and shows its out of calendar reach then all https sites are blocked.......... it had happened like 3 to 4 times and i restore my computer then the problem is fixed.......how to fix it permanently

The clock has been reset again!
Should I try the other three or four servers as well? Is this a bug? Is it that there is still some setting kept which I should not keep? To my knowledge, I have unticked everything...

I have done that just now; thank you!
The server immediately reset the clock to show a different time. I manually set it to show the time I need.
All I have to do now is wait and see. If there is no resetting in the next twelve hours, it might be OK.

Hey there!
It is not Windows 10.
I do not want to change the region. I want to keep things the way they are and still have the clock show the time I want it to show.
I do not want the system to take decisions for me. I should be the one in control, not the machine.

Hey!
I keep a certain time zone on my computer, which has nothing to do with where I live. Windows changes the clock two or three times a days regardless of the fact that I require that it should not do so. This did not happen on the previous Windows (8 or older) versions of the OS. Why is this happening now and what can be done to make it stop? (It is really annoying.)
Thank you very much!

Well people, your CMOS battery (on the motherboard) is only in use when you UNPLUG the computer from a continuous power source. In other words, your computer does NOT even require a CMOS battery unless you unplug it from the wall!

So why does my clock run slow, reset, or my date and time change when I reboot? Who knows! If you do NOT unplug your computer and your clock resets to 1999 or some other date, your clock crystal is failing or has failed, or there is a problem with the PLC, or there might even be a problem with the Southbridge of the processor. There are several non-user serviceable reasons. The CMOS battery is the only thing you can service and is probably not your problem!

Windows provides an option to sync time to an external time server. I had a similar problem with my PC using Windows 7. I also dual boot with Linux. Linux time has always been accurate, so my issue was not cmos battery related.

My solution in W7 was to simply change the Internet time server. Click on clock, then "change date and time setting", ... click on tab "Internet settings." Make sure your clock is using Internet settings. Click on "change settings".... and select a different time server . Remarkably, some time servers W7 proides are defunct or don't provide accurate time. I use: time-a.nist.gov

My computer clock often shows the wrong time & date - even back when I had just bought it. So I just reset the time and date. This happens at times when I turn it on and the BIOS update screen is there and then windows loads normally with, of course, the wrong date and time.I think I send it back to HP to fix this "weak" battery.

Another problem (which will adjust your clock by 1 hour either way) might be your Daylight Savings Time settings may be out of date (there's been at least 1 change to the DST rules since 2007). Windows Update will take care of this, as will some third-party updaters for Windows 98 and up.

I would say 3 to 5 years is the lifetime you can expect. After the third year you should be aware of the possibility that the battery might start losing it.

However, I have seen computers that were over 7 years old and they were ok. The time wasn't accurate, but it wasn't dramatically off either. Most importantly, there were no boot issues, i.e. the battery was still providing enough power to store the BIOS settings.

The time server (NTP server) that Windows uses to sync may be down or not reachable. A PC clock is very inaccurate and will go out of sync even without battery problems. Make sure, the NTP server is up and reachable.

There is a (1B) too: my motherboard has a few switches at the back, near the USB connectors. One of these switches is a CMOS reset. I accidentally switched it and wondered why I would lose the settings when turning the computer off completely.

So if your battery is recent, you might look at the motherboard manual and see whether the CMOS clear switches are properly turned off.

There is a (1B) too: my motherboard has a few switches at the back, near the USB connectors. One of these switches is a CMOS reset. I accidentally switched it and wondered why I would lose the settings when turning the computer off completely.

So if your battery is recent, you might look at the motherboard manual and see whether the CMOS clear switches are properly turned off.

I would say 3 to 5 years is the lifetime you can expect. After the third year you should be aware of the possibility that the battery might start losing it.

However, I have seen computers that were over 7 years old and they were ok. The time wasn't accurate, but it wasn't dramatically off either. Most importantly, there were no boot issues, i.e. the battery was still providing enough power to store the BIOS settings.

Tina has been writing about consumer technology for over a decade. She holds a Doctorate in Natural Sciences, a Diplom from Germany, and an MSc from Sweden. Her analytical background has helped her excel as a technology journalist at MakeUseOf, where she's now managing keyword research and operations.